Cross country racing can be like living in a jungle, and nowhere is that more true than the Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg.
Along with the crowd of runners trying to get one foot in front of their competitors to make a slight but significant difference in team standings, those team races play out in several layers.
The treetops are colored by the uniforms of the teams up front, black for Battlefield, Chantilly purple, maroon Oakton and navy blue Washington-Lee. Those are the premier Virginia teams, defending their commonwealth. In the canopy, the visitors from across the river- Richard Montgomery, Poolesvile, Georgetown Visitation, not going head-t0-head with the Old Dominion teams but holding their own. It’s a salad bowl and one of two main opportunities teams in the Washington area come together mid-season to try to collect some experience racing against their cross-state contemporaries.
Then below, in the shrubs, but by no means scrubs, the small schools are going at it. Bishop O’Connell, George Mason, all lost in pack but learning important lessons about where they are in the middle of the season. Georgetown Day School, one of the smallest in the field, ran a big-time race on the boys’ side.
Up top, Oakton coach Alisa Byers was surprised by how well her teams ran, for a number of reasons.
“We’ve been hitting it pretty hard the last three weeks, but they came back and ran their best races of the season so far,” she said. The Cougar girls won over Washington-Lee and the boys took fifth. “We were missing 10 to 15 people most days this week, something was going around, so I was surprised we had our usual top seven.”
The 70-second spread from second place Allie Klimkiewicz to her fifth runner was encouraging, as was Hailey Dougherty’s sixth-place finish.
“They mostly ran faster, on this ridiculously hilly course, than they did last week on the Knight’s Crossing course in Salem, which is pretty flat,” she said.
Jack Stoney led the way for her boys’ team in eighth place.
Washington-Lee got a surprise out of Jordan Selby, who was making her first race since recovering from an ankle injury. She finished second for the team in 19th place.
“She’d been hurting since outdoor track and spent a lot of the summer in the pool,” said coach Matt Przydzia. “Her race was really impressive and unexpected.”
On the boys’ side, Battlefield won over Chantilly, with a strong top four that finished before Chantilly’s third.
Individually, Edison’s Louis Colson continued his tear through the area, winning in 15:16 over Poolesville’s (Md.) Chase Weaverling, who ran 15:28. Both figure to be among the favorites in their respective state meets.
Colson worked his way up through the lead pack in the second mile and took off after two miles were up.
“We went out in 4:45, and it was pretty exciting to have a whole bunch of guys going out fast,” he said. “It was a competitive race, you couldn’t relax anywhere.”
Weaverling tried to hang with him. Despite falling behind, he’s off to a strong senior season, one he salvaged after a mid-summer mono diagnosis.
“I came out of that and have been able to keep my mileage pretty high,” he said.
Rough course
No matter how well trained athletes were, the course was something to overcome. Weaverling’s teammate Claire Beautz, who finished 21st, was pleased with her race, despite being a little slower than normal.
“The first mile is great, it’s all downhill, but then you really pay for it at the end,” she said.
Richard Montgomery junior Rachel Gold was nervous coming into the race due in part to the course’s reputation.
“Everyone talks about the hill,” she said. “And those stretches in the woods are tough, there aren’t as many people out there. You just have to tough it out and keep going.”
At the margin call, runners are faced with “the hill,” which gave most runners pause. The course is a masterpiece dedicated to strength runners, painted on the canvas provided by the Oatlands Plantation. It’s notorious among runners, parents and coaches.
Bishop O’Connell coach Cindy Walls was walking the course with her team when freshman Isabell Baltimore said she was worried about the hill.
“It was a teachable moment,” Walls said. “I explained that if you were thinking about what was coming up in five minutes, you weren’t ‘racing.’ You need to think in the moment.
“It’s the hardest cross country course in Virginia,” said George Mason coach Alisa Harvey, who has seen her share of courses dating back to her own high school career. “It was an achievement that every one of our runners crossed the line.”
Saplings in the Forest
A little background— George Mason is one of the smallest schools in northern Virginia, populated by residents of the city of Falls Church. Though they have won a number of state championships in the smallest classification, they regularly take their lumps at the big invitationals where everyone is in the fight together.
Added to the enrollment challenge, many of the Mustangs spent the early part of the summer out of town, some in South Africa, Scotland and California.
“They’re catching up fitness-wise,” Harvey said. “My great joy is the underclassman girls’ team (third out of46 teams). The top three are in eighth grade.”
St. Johns College coach Mike Sheehy loves the course.
“It’s true cross country,” he said. “The hills, the stream crossing, it’s what I think of when I think of the sport.”
His teams will be diverting from their normal weekend invitational schedule in two weeks to run the Ragnar relay between Cumberland, Md. and Washington, D.C.
“It’s a great bonding experience,” he said. “That’s what they’ll remember about their high school cross country careers.”
Georgetown Day’s seventh place finish might not have registered much among the teams figured to be fighting for berths to the Virginia state meet out of the Northern Region, but the tiny school in Tenleytown took a lot from its finish.
That finish, the runners said, was not just due to the mathematical advantage of running in packs, but psychological.
“It’s the most amazing feeling, racing next to your teammates,” said Griffin Colaizzi.
His brother Tristan agreed. “We all put the same work into our training and seeing it amount to something like this is so rewarding,” he said. “Whenever I got tired I’d see the back of one of my teammates’ heads up there and know he can handle the pain, so can I.”
They are focusing on the post season meets, defending the DC Independent Schools championship, and aiming at the Nike Cross Country regional meet. That team-focused approach has extended to the girls’ team.
“We were doing hill repeats on Brandywine, and by the time we were starting the boys had finished their three,” said Julia Ernst. “They came back down to the bottom and did a fourth one with us. I don’t know many guys who would do that.”
Bishop O’Connell was another small school that was able to climb the trees and get a little sunlight. The girls finished 20th, which encouraged Walls, but none like the aforementioned Isabell Baltimore. The freshman led the team, which was a first for Walls. Throughout the season, runners swap t-shirts with their finishing order relative to the team, earned by the week.
“This is my first time in 18 years I’ve had a freshman girl earn the number one shirt,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting.”
In addition, a year after barely fielding a boys team, O’Connell had 20, spread among three races.
Woodrow Wilson High School traveled from Washington, D.C. to get a race in against tough competition.
“We had a great individual performance (from Ross Pendergast, fifth in the boys varsity B race),” said coach Desmond Dunham. “Our girls went to the Braddock Relays and had a great time, even though it was pouring rain at the end.”
Finishers of the 10th running of MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital’s (NRH) Super H 5k had more than one reason to celebrate on Sunday. Their participation and fundraising contributions will benefit MedStar NRH’s community-based athletic programs for disabled adults and children.
The race kicked off at 8 a.m. outside of Tysons Sport & Health in McLean, Va. in perfect low-60 degree temperatures. Winding around Tysons Corner, the course eventually looped onto a rolling route 684 and finished back in front of the sports complex.
Wade Harris of Herndon captured first place after out-clipping second-place finisher and early-race leader Ted Poulos of McLean in a sprint-to-the-finish. Harris steadily reined in Poulos over the final stretch, finishing in 19:36.
Andrea Meuser, who hails from Germany and resides in Vienna, easily won first in the women’s division and finished eighth overall in 20:59. A 2:59-marathoner and 2014 Boston Marathon qualifier, Meuser bided her time behind the early leader – who had two dogs in tow – before she dropped the hammer at the mile marker.
But for Meuser, the ultimate prize was supporting her son Alex, who participates in MedStar NRH’s community programs and competed in the race’s wheelchair division. Making it a real family affair, Alex’s dad, Thomas, ran as a member of the race’s corporate sponsor, Volkswagen Group of the America, which is headquartered in Herndon.
Thomas was one of several Volkswagen employees who came out to benefit the cause. Carsten Krebs, a communications specialist at Volkswagen, estimated that more than 100 Volkswagen workers – a whopping 20 percent of the company – participated in or raised money for the race. “It’s a great thing to do for charity, and it’s also a great way to engage employees,” he said.
MedStar NRH employees also turned out with enthusiasm. Catholic University senior and MedStar NRH intern, Kaitlin Ekert convinced her boyfriend Ryan Michael to run the road race.
“It’s a great way to come out and advocate for people with disabilities,” Ekert remarked of her first 5k. Despite finding the hills “challenging,” she and Michael are both eager to train for and compete in more.
The real stars of the day were MedStar NRH’s program participants, who completed the course in wheelchairs and hand cycles, and with prosthetic limbs. They navigated the difficult course while onlookers and fellow racers cheered them on.
“It’s amazing to watch them get up those hills,” said Walter Beckwith of West Palm Beach, Florida. Beckwith ran as part of the unofficial “Team Dave,” a group supporting a friend Dave Cohen, who finished the wheelchair race in 48:02. Despite having after completed the Bug Eye Triathlon in Cambridge, Maryland just one day prior, Beckwith was encouraged by “the great weather and the great cause” and finished in a respectable 24:48.
Dana Crisan, vice president and chief philanthropy officer of MedStar Health and one of the race’s lead organizers, recruited her daughter Killian to come out and support the cause. The pair sported matching pink tops and said they were motivated by the disabled participants and spectators’ cheering. Both hope this will be just the first of many road races together.
For others, the race offered an opportunity to celebrate their own health. MedStar NRH physical therapist, Katie Bryson of Arlington ran to support her patients, and also felt fortunate to be able to compete pain-free. As collegiate field hockey player at Misericordia University, Bryson developed serious back problems, which doctors said could have caused paralysis. She kicked it in the final stretch to finish in 29:01.
“I didn’t stop to walk once,” she said.
Young kids in race bibs laughing and playing games as they followed “Larry the Lion” around a park is not the typical road race finish line. But the Kensington 8k, a race that donated its proceeds to three local public schools, attracted competitors of all ages.
In its 20th year, the Kensington 8k race brought more than 500 runners—for just one distance. In addition to the 8K competitors, the Two-Mile Challenge was made up of 400 participants along with the 1k Fun Run that turned out 300 runners. With over 40 local sponsors, the event proceeds went to supporting Kensington Parkwood Elementary, North Bethesda Middle and Walter Johnson High Schools.
The entire Walter Johnson High School Crew team showed their support by making up a substantial portion of the 8k participants. Ofri Shmul, a Walter Johnson High School crew athlete, said it’s a longtime tradition for her team to launch the beginning of their season with the Kensington 8k.
“This race is to show that we support our school and our team,” Shmul said.
Shmul found the motivation to keep going by sporting a brightly-colored tutu over her outfit.
“I run with the tutu a lot,” Shmul said. “I take it to a lot of my crew practices and it motivates me to row faster. It’s also to cheer everyone up. Instead of thinking about running, you’re thinking about an awesome tutu.”
Shmul’s teammate Emma Landgren noted there was also one other added benefit to competing in the race other than just supporting their school and team.
“Running is one of the easiest ways to get your cardio built up for rowing,” Landgren said. “Even though we’re not a very fast team, we still finish and go as hard as we can. It’s also good for team building and to working together.”
The event highlighted Kensington’s unique small-town feel with fans that came out to watch the race all over the course as it weaved in and out of 120-year-old historic neighborhoods.
“The community really comes together,” said Scott Silliman of Olney, Md. who has participated in the Kensington 8k on and off for nearly 15 years.
Some competitors of the race used the course to gage where they were at in their training, including Bill Teng of Buronsville, Md. Less than two weeks away from his up-coming race, the Wine Glass Marathon, Teng smashed his old course records by several minutes.
“The hill repeats in my training program must be working,” Teng said.
A runner all his life, Teng didn’t start to get serious about competing until he set a new goal for himself two years ago—to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
“When I got the Boston qualifying time in my head, I had to keep trying.”
The race started out on a down-hill for the first two miles and then took runners past the Kensington Town Hall and along the Antique Row. Runners then entered Rock Creek Park for a scenic run along Beach Drive. But the historic course is best known for its suitably named the hill, the “East Bexhill.”
“It’s a very ideal course—albeit that hill,” said first-place finisher Jake Klim of North Bethesda. “The hill is a disqualifier in terms of a fast course.”
Pulling away from the pack right at mile two in preparation for the hill ahead, Klim kept the lead for the entire race and won with a time of 26:17—the fastest time the course has seen since 2009.
“It’s what a race should feel like,” Klim said. “It’s got that local village flavor to it.”
Not far behind him were his Georgetown Running Club teammates, Sebi Devlin-Foltz of Washington, D.C. who took second-place and Justin Snair of Arlington, Va who finished in third.
“It was good to have a one, two, three finish with the teammates,” Klim said. “It was just icing on the cake.”
Jennifer Panetta of Berwyn Pa. and Jocilyn McNally of Kensington, Md. ran neck and neck through the finish line in the women’s competition.
“[The race] was what I expected,” Panetta said. “I went out fast on the downhill mile on what’s normally my 5k race but faded a little at the end.”
Despite fading toward the end of the race, Panetta held on to take the first-place title with a time of 31:07, just four seconds ahead of second-place.
Though a gruesome hill in the middle of the race, competitors were able to savor the downhill sprint that led them back to the finish line in Old Town Kensington, which was full of hundreds of spectators from the community cheering all of runners on.
Race Director John Seabreeze took over the race after Jenny Smith had retired from her duties for 19 years. She wanted to focus on her bakery shop, which was right around the corner from the finish line.
“The race went really well,” Seabreeze said. “It’s the most sponsors we’ve ever had and raised nearly $24,000 for local schools. It’s truly a community race.”
In the grand scheme of things, runners feeling misunderstood by friends and family members – -because they run for fun, go out in blizzards and rainstorms, etc. — isn’t the end of the world. They came together Sunday afternoon to help raise money to help another, more tragically misunderstood population — veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Run for Recovering Heros races Sunday afternoon in Carderock raised money for the Patton Veterans Project, an organization managed by the grandson of Gen. George S. Patton that helps veterans produce short films to better communication their mental and emotional struggles after returning from combat.
The races on the C&O Canal Towpath started an hour apart, allowing 5k runners to double in the 10k.
Serial racer Ted Poulos, of McLean, did just that, and won both. After out sprinting teenager Noah Fields in 20:04, he took a more patient approach in the 10k. He moved into the lead four miles in, after laying back and letting early leaders Joseph Toth and Christopher Bachran duke it out, and won in 40:43.
“I bided my time, and that was a huge help in the 10k,” he said. “I got in a good rhythm and just went with it.”
Bachran chased in when he lost his position in the front.
“I heard him coming and once he passed me, I figured the best way to run fast was to try to chase him down,” he said.
He got that, coming in second at 41:14.
Dawn Gillis of Falls Church won the women’s 10k in 42:56, a test on her way to, she hopes, breaking 3:10 at October’s Hartford Marathon. Her 3:14 in May at the Run for the Red Marathon in Pennsylvania gives her some optimism that it will work out.
Second place finisher Sophia Santillan of Annapolis went out with a pack in the 10k, but found herself alone when it fell apart. Despite her solitary run to a 48:18 finish, she felt like the race was a good tuneup for the Perfect 10 miler later in the month.
Wil White, of Hyattsville, was so determined to run this race and the 9/11 Heroes Run 5k on Saturday that he tore out stitches in his knee. He finished the 10k in 52:25.
“Nothing was going to stop me,” he said.
Manuel Rivera ran his first road race at the age of 58, nearly four decades after his college days of running quarter mile races.
He started jogging around his Washington neighborhood a few years ago when he weighed in at 213 pounds and couldn’t walk a block without feeling winded. Sunday, wearing bib 123 (he hadn’t lost that much weight running), he dipped under 24 minutes (23:57) to finish second in his age group.
“My wife brought home an advertisement for the race and I figured that meant it was time to sign up,” he said. “I’m hooked now, I want to run every race.”
Sarah Biss knew little about Saturday’s Navy-Air Force Half Marathon before embarking on a vacation to the United States. She certainly didn’t plan on winning the race.
But that’s just what Biss, 36, did, taking the women’s half marathon title in 1:23:18 Saturday.
The New Zealander is simply visiting America on a six-week vacation—she leaves Thursday—and stumbled upon this weekend’s event.
“I Googled races in Washington, D.C. and saw that this one was on the mall,” Biss said. “I’m a bit of a history buff.”
The 2:39 marathoner and one-time New Zealand national team runner didn’t know what to expect in terms of competition, so winning came as a shock to her.
“I don’t have a clue about the D.C. running scene,” she said with a chuckle.
Biss beat out a field of more than 1,200 for the crown, including second-place Tracy Spiess of Fairfax, who finished more than three minutes behind the Kiwi.
The 34-year-old Spiess, who finished in 1:26:31, was using Saturday’s half marathon as training for next month’s Marine Corps Marathon. There, she hopes to break the three-hour mark.
She described herself as “falling into running” having not ran completely until recently.
“I ran Boston this year and had a personal best by 11 minutes on eight weeks of training,” Spiess said. “I was like, ‘Alright, let’s actually train like a real runner and see what I can do.’ ”
The 13.1-mile course started on 15th Street down Independance toward the Arlington Memorial Bridge before turning north for an out-and-back on the Rock Creek Parkway and finishing with a loop around Hans Point. The route was in reverse of last year, starting with the Rock Creek out-and-back and ending with the Hans Point loop. That course, however, put the leading half marathoners right in the back of the five mile walkers, causing some to opt for the grass alongside the road, rather than navigating the crowd.
Shannon Miller won last year’s inaugural race for the women in 1:21:39.
Alexandria’s Patrick Fernandez – who like Spiess was using Saturday’s half marathon as training for October’s Marine Corps Marathon – took the men’s race in 1:07:52. The mark bested last year’s time of 1:10:11 set by David Burnham, who won the inaugural event.
“There was a little bit of wind, but as far as temperature and the humidity level, it was definitely ideal racing conditions,” Fernandez said. “For the most part, the course is pretty flat, so combining all of those just made for a lot of PRs and a lot of records for today.”
Fernandez, 26, had won the sister event – the Navy 5 Miler – the previous two years and even held the race record there before jumping into the half marathon field.
“My coach just recommended this half marathon because it’s a nice flat course,” the Capital Area Runners athlete said.
Fernandez said he ran with a pack of runners till about the 4- or 5-mile mark at which time he picked up the pace and created some distance between himself and the pack.
Matthew Barresi of Falls Church finished second to Fernandez in 1:08:16. Evan Jukovich of Washington came in third at 1:10:00.
Fernandez’s Navy 5 Miler event record of 25:13 stood for only a year before Washington’s Mike Franklin of the Georgetown Running Club used the flat course and mid-50 temperatures at the start to best that mark, running a 24:52.
Franklin ran with a pack of teammates before breaking away about a half mile from the finish.
Despite running an event record, Franklin said he was “not unhappy” with the result and hopes to run faster 5-mile races in the future.
The 22-year-old, who plans on running the Wilson Bridge Half Marathon and the Army 10 Miler in October, just graduated from Princeton University earlier this year.
“I just graduated from college in the spring and am still getting used to the whole ‘having a job and fitting running together’ thing,” he said. “I really just want to transition and enjoy it.”
Thomas Adam, 26, of Charlottesville’s Ragged Mountain Running team, finished second with a time of 24:59 – which
also bested the old event record. Sam Luff of Washington came in third at 25:28, though Kieran O’ Connor ran faster — 25:14 — despite fighting his way through the crowds when the race inexplicably started 10 minutes earlier than advertised.
Though Hilary May also ran an event record in the five mile (30:12), she was left worried on the starting in when she couldn’t find her teammate, Maura Carroll, who also fell victim to the change in start time.
The previous event record was 30:39 set in 2008 by Martha Merz.
“A lot of our teammates missed the start,” May said. “(Maura) started a few minutes back, so I was a little out of it for the first few miles worried where she was and how we were going to execute the plan alone.”
May instead ran the whole race alone, a tactic she jokingly said was “not ideal.”
Race organizers later said there was confusion regarding the previous posted start of 8:10 a.m. was at one point moved up to 8 a.m. with little notification.
The race website lists 8:10 a.m. as the start despite the earlier gun.
Second place finisher Lauren Carter traveled from New York City for the five mile as training for the Boston Half Marathon on Oct. 13. Carter finished in 30:39, but looks to return to D.C. next April for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.
Kelly Swain, 28, of Arlington finished third in 31:13.
While the Navy 5 Miler has been around since 2005, Saturday’s event was just the second running of the Navy-Air Force Half Marathon, and provides an alternative distance to the popular, local races of the Marine Corps Marathon and the Army 10 Miler.
“It’s a great way to celebrate the joint cooperation between the services too,” Anthony Calandra, commander of the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, which manages the event.
The half marathon started with 3,200 entrants in the first running last year and had nearly 5,000 this year.
“At some point, we’ll probably cap the race,” Calandra said. “We’re expecting to grow even larger next year.”
Proceeds from the event go to moral and wellness programs for military members and their families.
The inaugural Lauren’s Run was less of a race than a reunion. At 9 a.m., race time, the starting line in Rock Creek Park was clear as Jerry Alexander, the coach of GRC Racing Team, gave a short speech about Lauren Woodall Roady’s “indomitable spirit.”
That spirit powered Lauren’s fast rise from recreational to elite runner. But it wasn’t just running. It was the balanced yet tireless way Lauren lived her life, applying her talent and energy to her training and racing, her work as a lawyer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, her baking, her commitment to family and friends, and more. As one of her close friends, Jennifer Harris, who met Lauren in second grade and now lives in Connecticut, said at the event, Lauren “could multi-task like nobody’s business.”
Last December, Lauren was struck by a vehicle and killed in Lexington, Ky., hours after competing with her GRC teammates in the National Club Cross Country Championships, her first cross country race. But her 5K memorial run Sunday, organized by her GRC teammates and well attended by Lauren’s family and friends, was clear proof that her spirit lives on. All proceeds from Lauren’s Run will benefit an organization that supports Cades Cove, a valley in the Great Smoky Mountains where Lauren spent many summers hiking and camping with her family.
“It’s hard,” her father, Jack Woodall, said. “We still miss her every day. It’s great to be here and see her friends. … She had a lot of joy in her running, and that’s what you see [here].”
Jack and Sharon traveled from their home near Knoxville, Tenn., to take part in the event. They were joined by their son, Nicholas, a graduate student at UCLA, Jack’s brother, and family friends.
From an early age, Jack said, Lauren loved horses. “We knew nothing about horses,” he said, “but she wanted to ride horses so bad that she learned everything she could about them and did all that herself. And I think that really taught her a lot of organizational skills because it’s pretty complicated to go to school, and look after a horse, and ride.”
Through college and law school, Lauren’s passion for equestrian sports became more difficult to maintain. She started running recreationally, gradually re-applying her dedication to equestrian sports into distance running. In 2009, she ran her first marathon, qualifying for Boston. In early 2012, Alexander observed Lauren doing a workout one night at Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School, where the club practices, and invited her to join the team. In one of her last races, Lauren raced head-to-head at the Navy Air-Force Half Marathon with an Olympic trials qualifier, nearly breaking her personal best for 5k along the way.
This 5k, really, was about bringing people together.
When Lauren’s husband Peter Roady, a budding triathlete, told friends about the event and they in turn told him they “weren’t really runners,” Roady told them, “It’s not really about running a race. It’s about being outside, being active” – celebrating the essence of Lauren’s dedication to the sport. His good friend, Anand Prakash, who does not think of himself as a runner, was convinced to run and walk the course the day after returning from a work trip to Bangladesh.
While James Pagano of Arlington was top male in 17:14 and Michelle Miller of Damascus was top female in 20:12, participants also walked and pushed strollers. Before and after, participants and GRC members who helped put on the event gathered around the Meadowbrook Park Activity Building’s picnic tables – near the start and finish – to socialize and share memories over baked goods supplied by club members.
“It’s always great to see everyone celebrating her,” Harris said. She then added, “I think the hardest thing is, you expect to see her there. I think that still catches me by surprise.”
GRC’s Lindsay Donaldson O’Brien, Laura O’Hara, and Patrick Murphy chose to stage Lauren’s Run where they did because it was near the park’s horse stables, which the route passed twice as it looped through park roads and bike paths.
Roady, who was joined at the event by his parents, sister, extended family, friends, and co-workers, added that the race’s location was Lauren’s favorite place to run. They lived near the park and often ran the trails together. Lauren also liked to do long marathon training runs on Beach Drive, Peter said.
“If it were any Sunday morning and she were still around,” he said, “this is exactly what she would have been doing. It just probably would have been 20 miles, not [5K].”
Four years ago, Lauren inspired Peter’s mother, Celia, to start running. She completed a 5K, and has been running four or five days a week ever since. Weeks ago, at 62, she completed her first triathlon.
For Rockville’s Jeff Lynch, Lauren’s Run was his first 5k in 28 years, when he was in high school. He was one among several dozen of Lauren’s co-workers at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who participated in the event – walking, running, getting across the finish line. Lynch and other NRC employees had learned of Lauren’s running accomplishments through an article in the agency’s newspaper.
Lynch was joined in the event by co-workers he meets at the end of the day to workout in the NRC gym, where Lauren used to sneak in a second workout on her lunch breaks.
“Maybe I’ll have to start running more,” he said.
The debut of a grand pianist in a full tuxedo complete with tails at mile six was not the only new tradition that the Montgomery County Road Runner Club’s Parks Half Marathon started in its eighth year. The runners themselves were determined to mark new ground by crushing the old course record by more than a minute.
Filled with hills, scenic parks and trails, the race included an elite class of runners, many from the local area.
Clocking in less than two minutes after the women’s finish line tape broke, Etaferahu Temesgen of Silver Spring, Md. clenched second place followed by Tezata Dengersa of Washington, D.C., who took third. Meseret K Tolwak of New York, N.Y. won the women’s competition with a time of 1:16:25.
Haile Teg Mengesha from New York, N.Y. took the overall first-place title with a time of 1:04:31, which was 20 seconds faster than Ernest Kebenei of Norfolk, Va., who finished second. The elite competition also featured professional ultra-marathoner Michael Wardian of Arlington, Va.
But even with the cost of attracting more runners and providing unique entertainment, Race Director Mike Acuña and the Montgomery County Road Runners Club have not lost sight of the club’s goal established eight years ago to provide a high-quality race at a good value.
“It’s a local race with a big feel to it,” Acuña said. “We’ve figured out a way to make it grow without making it too crowded.”
Acuña also mentioned the race’s other priority—giving runners a chance to get a race under their belt before the marathon season begins.
“We’ve got people who [want to] race half marathons,” Acuña said. “And then we’ve got a lot of marathoners that use this race a tune-up for fall marathons.”
Many runners who tuned up for a marathon hoped to achieve a certain time and looked to Run Farther & Faster coach Julie Sapper as their pacer. While celebrating her birthday with 13.1 miles and a ribbon filled with glitter, Sapper noted that the day was not about her.
“It’s about everyone else,” Sapper said. “You don’t want to disappoint people and not have them get the time they want. Although you sometimes lose people along the way, you know there are some people that can see you from far away and are using you as a marker. So I just tried to stick with my pace.”
Despite feeling the pressure, Sapper successfully led her group into the finish line to their goal time.
Among the thousands of athletes who competed on the hilly course through the parks, some competitors had a home-field advantage.
“I normally run on the trails during the week,” said Robert Palmer of Silver Spring, Md. “So it’s like a home course for me.”
Rob Hannon also had a home-turf advantage.
“[The course] is in the neighborhood,” Hannon said. “I can see my house from the trail.”
The race started near the Rockville Metro station and winded through Chevy Chase and Bethesda, took runners along Rock Creek Park paths and Capitol Crescent and Georgetown Branch Trail. Finishing in Elm Street Park in Bethesda under humid conditions, runners were greeted at the finish with commemorative beanies, refreshments and massage therapists.
Runners hoping to make it to the Paul Thurston 4.5 Miler Tuesday night found themselves stuck between the clock and a hot race.
The race served as the final leg of the DC Road Runners Bunion Derby series for the summer, but holding it at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax Station was balancing act. If the club held it on a weekend, runners would have to pay $8 to enter the park. If it was on a weekday, evenings would be limited by the park’s closing time at sundown, roughly 8:00 p.m. With a 6:45 starting time, it was up to the runners as to how they would manage the end of their workday and fight rush hour traffic to get to the race.
There were some drive-time casualties, like Claire Hallissey, who had built an impressive resume over the course of the series, wasn’t able to reach the park in time. Others were lucky the weather was toasty, because warmup time was at a premium.
Ready or not, the gun went off and Karsten Brown, who made the trip from Front Royal, ran to a healthy margin in 26:47 over Antonio Eppolito‘s 27:16 after a loop around Burke Lake’s trails and a few paved hills at the end. Burke’s Cathy Ross won the women’s race in 30:29 over Elizabeth May‘s 32:02. Ross just found out she would be hopping on the Potomac River Running team for the Marine Corps Marathon, so her fall schedule just got a lot more solid.
Mike Fox-Boyd of Arlington surged in to finish right at 30 minutes, and although he said years ago he might be disappointed with that time, right now he was happy.
“I’m a shell of my former self, but I love this race,” he said. “I hope some 25-year-old reads this and realizes it’s ok to keep running when you hit your 30s.”
Rob Rodriguez, also of Arlington, embraced his age. He was running to maintain his position in the series’ 55-59 age group.
“I just had to finish in front of the other guys,” he said. “This was a defensive move!”
He’s transitioning into long distance training for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon this fall, so this was his last “fast” race.
“Age catches up with you, and cross country is a lot of up, down, left, right — movement you don’t get a lot of, training on the roads,” he said.
Any runner who understands the basics of delayed gratification — a principal so central to this sport — could appreciate the Leesburg 20k’s new course, now in its second year. The rolling hills on Dry Mill Road are gone, replaced by a long, grinding grade on the W&OD Trail, one that snuck up on South Riding’s Tatiana Sheptock.
“My eyes wouldn’t see it, but my legs felt it,” she said. “It definitely felt a lot better on the way back.”
She made her return to the race after an eight-year absence. She’s seen some change since then — when she ran she ran 1:40:47 on her way to finishing the Marine Corps marathon in 3:42:40 two months later.
This year, she ran 1:19:48 for third place, and will head into another marathon training effort with hopes of running 3:05 at Marine Corps.
“I’m a completely different runner now,” she said. “The race feels different, and I’m running paces for long races I could barely keep up for shorter distances.”
Both winners took advantage of the relief that came with the downhill to make their moves. Men’s winner Sean Barrett pulled away from Kieran O’Connor after the turnaround and ran to a 1:06:18 finish. Women’s winner Meghan Ridgley, of Ashburn, broke away from Arlington’s Erin Taylor after 7.5 miles to go onto an almost one-minute margin of victory- 1:17:16 to 1:18:12. Both are training for marathons, Ridgley Philadelphia and Taylor Richmond.
“I love this course,” Ridgley said. “It’s fun and you can see other people on your way out and back. A bunch of people I coach were out here and they did great.”
Ridgley coaches, and races, with the Potomac River Running training program, as does Sheptock and hordes of other top finishers.
Barrett’s race strategy changed as soon as he realized that his trainers were not going to cut it. In the rush to get out the door of his Arlington home to get to Leesburg for the 7:30 start, he forgot his racing flats.
“I tried to push off on my toes, but after a few miles it wasn’t happening,” he said. “I became a heel striker for the rest of the race.”
He’s looking ahead to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon, Army Ten Miler, .US Road Racing Championships 12k and USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Bend, Ore., where he’s headed with some of his Georgetown Running Club teammates in December.
O’Connor, who finished as the eighth American at the 2012 Boston Marathon, hadn’t competed since that scorcher, but acquitted himself well on the course to run 1:06:40.
“I was freaking out trying to find a bathroom seven minutes before the race, and ended up not taking my inhaler,” he said. “So I had my torso feeling pretty uncomfortable for a while.”
Though runners from farther east cleaned up on the men’s top spots, 249 of the 892 20k finishers were from Leesburg, Ashburn and Sterling, representing well at one of Loudoun County’s top races.
Carole Jones estimated that the Ashburn Area Running Club had more than 30 runners out on the course, and many PRed.
“The camaraderie was incredible,” she said. “It’s hard not to run well when you have so much support out there. I felt like I saw people I knew every minute.”
Jones ran 1:31:24 to finish 15th and second in her age group, second if only because Oak Hill’s DeeDee Loughran ran 1:22:35 to dominatingly win the women’s masters title. McLean’s John Zimmerman ran 1:11:41 to lead the male masters.
Kris Wolcott loved the opportunity to run near home.
“It was a home course advantage,” she said. “I run here every day and knowing the course made the race a lot less nerve-wracking.”
She was enthusiastic about seeing Ridgley, her coach, running so well. Like Ridgley, she’s headed to the Philadelphia Marathon in November — her first.
The race also included a 5k, won by Hugh Toland in 16:16 and Margie Shapiro in 18:19. That option appealed to Sterling’s Jason Lovelady, who ran it while his wife, Suzanne, ran the 20k.
“I’m not a runner, but I like to come to races with her,” he said. “The course was flat, so that appealed to me. It sounds like she wasn’t crazy about the hills in the longer race.”
The pair is considering their fall racing schedule, perhaps making a repeat trip to a costumed race, where last year the ran as Popeye and Olive Oil.
“Maybe not so much polyester this year,” he said. “That wasn’t really comfortable.”
| Leesburg 20k/5k |
| Aug. 18, 2013, Leesburg, Va. |
| Results: 20k 5k |
| Photos 1 Photos 2 Photos 3 |
Water stops are largely a luxury at most 5k races. For the canine competitors at the Lost Dog 5k Friday night, they were a necessity.
When the evening weather Friday was markedly warmer than a week before, runners — with two legs or four legs — knew they’d have to adjust their expectations and race strategies. The second of the four-race series in August benefiting the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation saw 115 repeat runners from the first week. The out-and-back course on the Four Mile Run and W&OD trails included strips of natural surface along the paved trail, perfect for paws. This week, 60 dogs raced.
Runners were welcome to run with socially-adjusted dogs, and many did. Runners without dogs of their own had the opportunity to rent a pup for the race.
Cerbi took a few detours into the creek alongside the trail, to cool off, with owners Maari Hanson and Jason Soules in tow.
“He gets along great with other dogs, if only for five seconds before he gets bored,” Soules said.
Hanson said Cerbi has been the couple’s training partner for a while.
“We usually do a few miles with him,” she said. “We try to avoid the humidity–that was probably killing our times a bit. It’s great for people to come out and see responsible pet owners, people who know how to handle a dog on a leash.”
Greg Russell, of Centreville, took his dog, Taylor, to her first race, and it went well.
“During her initial bolt, when the gun sounded, I had to get her to slow down,” he said. “She slowed down to walk, stopped to take care of business every once in a while, but she had a good time.”
Russell is training for the Marine Corps Marathon. Taylor didn’t get in before the race filled up.
“I was definitely a little slower from last week,” said Colleen Lally of Alexandria. “Tonight was hot!”
She just started running a year ago and just got back into racing after finishing rehabilitation following foot surgery.
Sara Fiorini, of Alexandria, agreed with Lally’s rough assessment, following the gift-like weather the first week.
“It was awful, I was dragging,” she said. “The humidity kicked my butt. My goal was to not stop, and I met that goal. I guess I’m happy with that.”
She runs to stay in shape for three different soccer leagues.
Not everyone suffered from the uptick in heat index. Overall winner Claire Hallissey of Arlington actually dropped six seconds from a her win on the cooler day, running 17:20. She took the lead at the turnaround and put 34 seconds on her closest pursuer in the second half. She went on to claim the top overall spot two days later at the DC Road Runners cross country three mile in Bethesda in 19:36.
Greg Hermanson, of Woodbridge, has been volunteering for the Lost Dog Foundation for more than 10 years, but he just started running last year.
“It was one of my slower times, but I still had a blast,” he said. “Sequestration has kept me from traveling from work as much as I am used to, so maybe this is the time I adopt a dog of my own.”
